served as a sort of donjon, or keep, in which the garrison could seek a last refuge.  At Memphis and at Thebes, there were as many keeps as there were great temples, and these sacred fortresses, each at first standing alone in the midst of houses, were, from the time of the Eighteenth Dynasty, connected each with each by avenues of sphinxes.  These were commonly andro-sphinxes, combining the head of a man and the body of a lion; but we also find crio-sphinxes, which united a ram’s head with a lion’s body (fig. 94).  Elsewhere, in places where the local worship admitted of such substitution, a couchant ram, holding a statuette of the royal founder between his bent forelegs, takes the place of the conventional sphinx (fig. 95).  The avenue leading from Luxor to Karnak was composed of these diverse elements.  It was one mile and a quarter in length, and there were many bends in it; but this fact affords no fresh proof of Egyptian “symmetrophobia.”  The enclosures of the two temples were not oriented alike, and the avenues which started squarely from the fronts of each could never have met had they not deviated from their first course.  Finally, it may be said that the inhabitants of Thebes saw about as much of their temples as we see at the present day.  The sanctuary and its immediate surroundings were closed against them; but they had access to the facades, the courts, and even the hypostyle halls, and might admire the masterpieces of their architects as freely as we admire them now.

[14] Hor-shesu, “followers,” or “servants of Horus,” are mentioned
    in the Turin papyrus as the predecessors of Mena, and are referred to
    in monumental inscriptions as representing the pre-historic people of
    Egypt.  It is to the Hor-shesu that Professors Maspero and Mariette
    attribute the making of the Great Sphinx.—­A.B.E.

[15] For a full description of the oldest funerary chapel known, that of
    King Sneferu, see W.M.F.  Petrie’s Medum.

[16] Conf.  Mr. Petrie’s plan of this temple in Pyramids and Temples of
    Gizeh, Plate VI.—­A.B.E.

[17] That is to say, the wall is vertical on the inside; but is
    built much thicker at the bottom than at the top, so that on the
    outside it presents a sloping surface, retiring with the height of
    the wall.—­A.B.E.

[18] “Hatshepsut,” more commonly known as “Hatasu;” the new reading is,
    however, more correct.  Professor Maspero thinks that it was pronounced
    “Hatshopsitu.”—­A.B.E.

[19] For full illustrated account of the complete excavation of this
    temple, see the Deir el Bahari publications of the Egypt
    Exploration Fund.

[20] Temenos, i.e., the enclosure wall of the Temple, within which
    all was holy ground.—­A.B.E.

3.—­DECORATION.

[Illustration:  Figs. 96 to 101.—­DECORATIVE DESIGNS, FROM DENDERAH.]